Government plans for buy to let landlords won’t work (03/02/2010)

Plans for the private-rented sector remain unworkable, according to the National Landlords Association (NLA).
The plans, announced today, include the development of a ‘Trip Adviser’ style website for feedback which would allow tenants to post their thoughts on any particular rental accommodation and its landlord. The Government also reaffirmed its commitment to the establishment of a National Register for Landlords, which would allow tenants to gather information on the track record of their prospective landlords. Information would include the conditions of their properties and how quickly any faults had been addressed and fixed in the past.
The NLA is opposed to both websites that offer landlords the opportunity to give feedback on their tenants, and those that encourage tenants to post their thoughts on their landlords. While feedback sites may offer useful information that landlords and tenants would not otherwise see, the NLA argues that the proposed website would require such intensive oversight so as to make it unfeasible, and ultimately, ineffective.
“Landlords are now getting highly mixed messages from the Government. At the same time as having to provide more accommodation in order to plug the housing gap, landlords are also now expected to be on a register, declare the addresses of their rental properties and also have feedback, whether true or false, posted about them on the Internet”, said David Salusbury, Chairman of the NLA. “Where is the incentive for landlords to develop their housing provision in today’s proposals? And how exactly do these administrative functions actually improve the quality of rental property?”
With subjective feedback sites, as the NLA suggests, it is often the case where negative experiences considerably outweigh the positive, sending the wrong message out to potential tenants.
“The NLA has said again and again that we do not need further regulation which over-burdens the overwhelming majority of good landlords,” said Salusbury. “However, we recognise the desperate need for local authorities to better use existing powers to drive up standards and root out rogue operators. Once again, we call on councils to devise strategies which target rogue landlords without penalising the law-abiding majority.”
Today’s package of measures also included a new housing hotline offering free advice for private tenants, full regulation of letting and managing agents, and an increased limit for Assured Shorthold Tenancies from £25,000 to £100,000 per year.

By Andy Stern

© Property Owners Directory 2010